SME of the Month November 2009 - Glantreo Ltd

Main activities of the company

Glantreo's vision is the exploitation of its Material Science capabilities and knowledge in two distinct business units.  The business units comprise of:

• the bringing to market of technologies originating from Irish Academic Institutions
• the continued growth of the consultancy / analysis business to Pharmaceutical, Medical Devices and Biotech companies in Ireland.    

Total Number of People Employed in the Company

• Full Time: 4, of which 3 are chemists
• Part Time: 3, all chemists    

Company Start Date

The company was initially formed in June 2004 but did not actively pursue its commercial goals until it took on its first full time employees in April 2008. 

Company Origin

Academic start up.

History of the Company

The company was originally found by Prof Mike Morris and Dr Justin Holmes (Chemistry department, (materials Science Section), University College Cork (UCC) as a means to commercialise IP (intellectual property) generated in their laboratories. The company also offered a consultancy / analysis service to the local pharmaceutical/ medical device Industry.

In 2008, after successfully licensing a silica manufacturing technology from UCC Glantreo took on its first employees (Jim McGrath, John Hanrahan and John Hogan) to manage and run the company on a commercial basis.  The mandate of these employees was to:

• sub licence the silica manufacturing technology to a major multinational
• continue to search for new exciting technologies in Irish academic Institutes that have a commercial value
• continue to grow Glantreo's analysis/consultancy business.    

The company signed a 5 year lease on a 20m² laboratory unit in the ERI Building in Cork.  A business plan was drafted and formalised by John Hogan and Jim McGrath (who both had considerable experience working technology based SME's.)  Glantreo's consultancy business helped to fund start up costs.  IP protection (for technology licensed) from UCC was 50% funded by the state body Enterprise Ireland. Initial office space was also funded by Enterprise Ireland through its regional Genesis Enterprise Program (GEP). To date the company has been self funded (no external investment). The company promoted itself via the conventional marketing techniques i.e Collateral, Offline Advertisement, Public Relations, Online Promotion, Direct Marketing, Trade Shows, Seedcorn funding competitions.

In 2009, a major breakthrough was achieved with the signing of a multimillion dollar license deal with a major US multinational for Glantreo's Silica manufacturing process. Glantreo have recently hired an additional research chemist (with support from Intertrade Ireland).

Future Plans

The successful 'bringing to market' of Glantreo's initial technology has given Glantreo the credibility with both academic and industrial partners alike. Glantreo intend to leverage and build on this credibility by successfully commercializing 2 additional technologies by the end of 2010. To this end Glantreo is already working on a number of projects that look promising both from a scientific and commercial perspective. One of the critical success factors going forward will be the ability to have products or solutions that are market ready and can be either brought to market directly by Glantreo or by leveraging the sales and distribution channels of our industrial partners.